Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessia Lessin's outlet, The Information, this morning ran a story behind a paywall claiming that Apple's tentative 2020 launch target for a rumored autonomous electric vehicle may have slipped until 2021. Project Titan, as it's code-named, “has run into challenges” after its top executive left in January, as per sources.
Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier T-Mobile USA today announced that all Simple Choice postpaid customers traveling to Brazil for 2016 Summer Olympics will be treated to unlimited high-speed 4G LTE data within the country during August.
In unleashing Brazil this summer, T-Mobile's CEO John Legere noted that not only will Rio de Janeiro visitors enjoy the Summer Olympics without worrying about roaming charges, but also free calls within Brazil and to U.S. during the month of August.
After repeated delays, Apple may finally get the chance to open company-run retail stores in India as the cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly approved a three-year extension on local-sourcing rules that require foreign companies operating their own retail stores to manufacture at least thirty percent of goods in the country.
Facebook yesterday announced that its Messenger service has hit a major milestone: the software is now being used by more than one billion people every month to message their friends and family. Messenger saw a major surge in popularity after it was decoupled from the main Facebook mobile client, and especially since becoming a software platform in its own right with chat bots, apps, money payments, expanded emojis and other features.
Facebook Messenger is a free download from the App Store.
Many rumors surrounding Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus suggest a refined iPhone 6s industrial design with subdued antennal lines on the backside and the usual Gold, Rose Gold and Silver finishes, with at least one source pointing at a possible Apple Watch-like Space Black variant.
Ran Avni of YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone posted an interesting video yesterday, depicting iPhone 7 mockups in Gold, Rose Gold and Space Black to give us an idea what the handset might look like when it launches this fall.
It appears that Apple has added a feature in iOS 10 that can detect if there is liquid in your device's Lightning connector. As seen in the above images, posted to Reddit by u/lucioghosty, if liquid is detected, iOS 10 warns you to keep the port clear until it dries.
The alert takes up the full screen, and apparently stays until you either disconnect whatever Lightning is plugged into the port, or you tap the Ignore button. Note that tapping Ignore pops up another warning saying, "this may damage your iPhone."
In addition to releasing a second public beta of iOS 10, macOS Sierra Public Beta 2 is now also available to those signed on the Apple Beta Software Program.
The third beta of Sierra was seeded to Apple's registered developers two days ago, and now public beta testers can take it for a spin (public beta 2 and developer beta 3 offer the same features).
The update should appear as an over-the-air download via the Software Update mechanism through the Mac App Store's Updates tab on Macs that run the first public beta and are enrolled in Apple's program.
Two days following the developer-only release of iOS 10 beta 3, Apple today released iOS 10 Public Beta 2 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software is now available to public beta testers who are signed on the Apple Beta Software Program.
For those wondering, iOS 10 Public Beta 2 and developer beta 3 offer the same features.
Folks on the first public beta with an appropriate configuration profile installed on their device should see an over-the-air download in Settings → General → Software Update.
A new emoji-predicting keyboard from Microsoft-owned SwiftKey, called Swiftmoji, launched on the App Store.
Available at no charge on the App Store, it boosts your emoji game by predicting a wall of suggested emojis based on crowdsourced data, the user's own preferences and the actual text written in any of the user's keyboards.
This ability to get perfect emoji predictions based on what you’ve just typed is similar to Apple's much-improved QuickType keyboard on iOS 10.
If you write books, manuals or lengthy manuscripts for a living, chances are you rely on Scrivener for Mac for your work. If so, you'll be delighted to learn that the app's creator, British developer Literature & Latte Ltd., has released Scrivener for iOS following a long period of thorough beta testing. The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app costs $19.99 and provides the full range of features writers need to create, edit and update their work on the go with full-screen mode on the iPad and other perks.
The unthinkable has happened: Twitter has decided to open its account verification system to the masses. That's right, everyone can now apply to have their account verified for bragging rights in the form of that blue checkmark next to their Twitter account name, which used to be the privilege of the rich and famous. But there's a catch: Twitter says that it will approve accounts that are “of public interest” so you'll need to tell them why they should verify your account.
Music-streaming service Deezer yesterday launched to everyone in the United States. The service, which has 40 million licensed tracks in its library, used to be available in the US via partnerships with Bose and Cricket Wireless, as well as Sonos. Sonos customers who paid $20 a month for Deezer Elite were able to wirelessly stream music from Deezer, but now everyone in the country can sign up for the Deezer Premium+ service on the web ($9.99 per month) or through the mobile app ($12.99 per month).